Montgomery County sentinel. [volume] (Rockville, Md.) 1855-1974, 1887-12-23
| HE SEN TIN E l..
ROCK VILE, MD.
Friday Morning ..... December %, 1887.
CHRISTMAS AND GHRLsTENDOM.

CHRISTMAS AND CHRLSTENDOM
In the hush of the midnight, with the
birth of the fast approaching Sabbath morn,
softly and silently as the light and shadows
that come and go on the ripping foliage of
the distant hills after the rich glow Of
Summers day, sweetly as q smile that plays
over the rosy dimples of an infant in its
dreams, will dawn another Christmas upon
the Christian world-laughing with joy and
wrapt in the warmth of light and love.
The world dates its current chronology
from the birth of Babe That is itself as
significant fact as can be named. By the
term world Of course is meant the world Of
Christendom. But the nations of Christen-
dom are the only progressive nations. No
body on Christmas Day doubts the unity Of
Christendom. For one day at least in the
year every one forgets that there is, or can
ever have been, such a thing as sectarianism.
Every one wishes, TO be sure, that himself
may be happy to-day, and is bound to be so,
but every one goes about wishing gladness
and joy for others. And SO happiness comes
to all by new road. Every one gets more
by giving than he could by snatching and
grasping. 1t need not be denied that the
immense ado which Christendom is making
over Christmas springs from mixed motives,
and is, to a considerable extent, a superb
cial matter. And still It is clearly best and
tsirest TO credit it with all it is worth,
Between he child in that far-of Bethle-
hem Of Judea and the Christendom Of TO-.
day there is great history. And 1t is his
tory which cannot be taken as other than
full of prophecy. If, behind us, there is so
much of progress, so much Of development,
of revolutions and evolutions, there may be,
there must be, yet more ahead In an in
FAINT, as in grain Of powder or In seed
kernel, there is great deal more than is
manifest or than one before hand could ever
have guessed. At the beginning OF what
may be called Christian history, despite the
coming of the Wise Men to do homage or
the songs of angels that filled for moment
the heavens, there was nothing imposing 10
be seen. But somehow new force, q new
factor, entered into human history; a new
turn was given, new train OF influences
and of consequences was set agoing. Coun-
try after country, race after race, generation
after generation have felt its touch. How it
could have survived so much Of ignorance
and selfshness and meanness, mixed in often
with it, is wonder. But it has; and be-
yond all question this approaching Christ.
mas Day is on the whole better one than
the world ever saw before. And things are
moving still.
To hear some people talk it might be
supposed that society was on its last legs,
that everything good was slumping to the
bad, that the only compact left among the
crowding multitudes is based upon meanness
and selfishness. But of course all that is
short-sighted and foolish. II it were other.
wise Christmas Day would be nothing but
sarcasm and mockery, instead of being
what it is, a day of sacred and joyous memo.
ries and filled with an infinite hope.
Matthew Arnold likes to speak of religion,
meaning, of course, the religion of Christen-
dom, as morality touched with emotion !"
but whether it is just that or not the term is
good one by which to designate the zest,
the heart, the deep enthusiasm with which
the best thinkers of the times are pushing
forward the investigations, the legislation,
the organized reforms, with all manner of
more personal schemes and endeavors that
can in any way besaid to make for righteous
ness" and the larger equity among men.
Germany is being crushed by its great mill.
tary system, and the triumvirate of William,
Bismarck, and Moltke clamor for more, and
yet these men really love the German peo-
pile, and neither Of them wants ever To see
another War, they only live In mortal dread
Oft Ambitious and revengeful France has
better armament to-day than the one which
followed Napoleon in his Italian cam
paign, and yet the better class of French
leaders and French people turn with horror
from the devastation and carnage of the
battle field. The better spirit of Christen-
dom is demanding humaner treatment for
all men. 1t has not been great while since
Lord Randolph Churchill left the Tory min
istry because he saw better than his asso.
ciates did that the spirit Of the new time
will have new and much better methods
for silencing the outcries of the wronged
and oppressed, and that British public sen
timent is sick of wasting all the revenues of
the country on ornaments that only exas.
perate national rivalry. Gladstone is still
turning the powers of his mighty intellect
in the championship of better government
for Ireland, and in SO doing he but voices
the advancing thought of Christendom on
both sides Of the sea.
II we compare the extent of civilization,
the diffusion of knowledge and the scene Of
human happiness In the first ages recorded
in authentic history, in the days of Herodo.
tus, with that which now obtains, when the
light then iaintly glimmering along the
shores Of the Mediterranean, has spread over
the whole world as far as the waters extend,
ehN hhN iNS1OAA w WutIn tuC 0EtCluu re-
publics then heroically commended, has ex-
tended over great part of Europe, and into
ancther hemisphere, ample ground for the
most cheering anticipatiens in regard TO the
future destiny Of the human race, will be
found to exist The Greek, the Carthage.
MAN, the Roman, the Persian Empire have
successfully fallen, but the human race has
survived all the catastrophies which for a
time appeared to darken its prospects, and
the sacred fire transmitted Ia the human
heart from one age to another, has on every
successive occasion CLEANED forth with I'D.
ditional lustre, and now eliminates the
whole world. The scattered and crumbling
fragments of the deserted affairs OF dead
gods in heather lands now attest the cree.
ton of living affairs TO the living God-the
deyinely certified anticipations of that first
glad Christmas morning are gradually com.
ing true.
In our own country Christian Thought is